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Thursday, 15 June 2017

ALL ABOUT TANSY

“People can
choose between the sweet lie or the bitter truth. I say the bitter truth, but
many people don’t want to hear it.” - Avigdor Lieberman

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a perennial,
herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to temperate Europe and
Asia. It has been introduced to other parts of the world including North
America, and in some areas has become invasive. It is also known as common
tansy, bitter buttons, cow bitter, or golden buttons. Tansy is absent from
Siberia and some of the Mediterranean islands. The ancient Greeks may have been
the first to cultivate it as a medicinal herb. In the sixteenth century it was
considered to be “necessary for a garden” in Britain.

The plant is a
flowering herbaceous species with finely divided compound leaves and yellow,
button-like flowers. It has a stout, somewhat reddish, erect stem, usually
smooth, 50–150 cm tall, and branching near the top. The leaves are alternate,
10–15 cm long and are pinnately lobed, divided almost to the centre into about
seven pairs of segments, or lobes, which are again divided into smaller lobes
having saw-toothed edges, giving the leaf a somewhat fernlike appearance.

The roundish,
flat-topped, button-like, yellow flower heads are produced in terminal clusters
from mid-to-late summer. The scent is similar to that of camphor with hints of
rosemary. The leaves and flowers are toxic if consumed in large quantities;
the volatile oil contains toxic compounds including thujone, which can cause
convulsions and liver and brain damage. If you intend to use tansy as a culinary
herb do not use it to excess and do not use it at all if you are allergic to
it. Some insects, notably the tansy beetle Chrysolina graminis, have resistance to the toxins and subsist
almost exclusively on the plant.

Tansy has a long
history of use. It was first recorded as being cultivated by the ancient Greeks
for medicinal purposes. In the 8th century AD it was grown in the herb gardens
of Charlemagne and by Benedictine monks of the Swiss monastery of Saint Gall.
Tansy was used to treat intestinal worms, rheumatism, digestive problems,
fevers, sores, and to bring out measles. During the Middle Ages and later, high
doses were used to induce abortions. Contrary to this, tansy was also said to
help women conceive and to prevent miscarriages. In the 15th century,
Christians began serving tansy with Lenten meals to commemorate the bitter
herbs eaten by the Israelites. Tansy was thought to have the added Lenten
benefits of controlling flatulence brought on by days of eating fish and pulses
and of preventing the intestinal worms believed to be caused by eating fish
during Lent.

Tansy was used
as a face wash and was reported to lighten and purify the skin. In the 19th
century, Irish folklore suggested that bathing in a solution of tansy and salts
would cure joint pain. Although most of its medicinal uses have been
discredited, tansy is still a component of some medicines and is listed by the
United States Pharmacopeia as a treatment for fevers, feverish colds, and
jaundice.

Tansy has also
been cultivated and used for its insect repellent and in the worm warding type
of embalming. It was packed into coffins, wrapped in funeral winding sheets,
and tansy wreaths were sometimes placed on the dead. During the American
colonial period, meat was frequently rubbed with or packed in tansy leaves to
repel insects and delay spoilage. Tansy was frequently worn at that time in
shoes to prevent malaria and other fevers; it has been shown, however, that
some mosquito species including Culex
pipiens take nectar from tansy flowers.

Tansy can be
used as in companion planting and for biological pest control. It is planted
alongside potatoes to repel the Colorado potato beetle, with one study finding
tansy reduced the beetle population by 60 to 100%. In England tansy is placed
on window sills to repel flies; sprigs are placed in bed linen to drive away
pests, and it has been used as an ant repellent. In the 1940s, distilled tansy
oil mixed with fleabane, pennyroyal and diluted alcohol was a well-known
mosquito repellent. Some research studies support these insect-repellent uses.

Tansy was
formerly used as a flavouring for puddings and omelettes, but this culinary use
is now almost unknown. The herbalist John Gerard (c. 1545–1612) noted that
tansy was well known as “pleasant in taste”, and he recommends tansy sweetmeats
as “an especial thing against the gout,
if every day for a certain space a reasonable quantitie thereof be eaten
fasting.” In Yorkshire, tansy and caraway seeds were traditionally used in
biscuits served at funerals. During the Restoration, a “tansy” was a sweet
omelette flavoured with tansy juice. In the BBC documentary “The Supersizers go
...Restoration”, Allegra McEvedy described the flavour as “fruity, with a sharpness
to it and then there’s a sort of explosion of cool heat a bit like peppermint.”
However, the programme’s presenter Sue Perkins experienced tansy toxicity.
According to liquor historian A. J. Baime, in the 19th century Tennessee
whiskey magnate Jack Daniel enjoyed drinking his own whiskey with sugar and
crushed tansy leaf.

Many tansy
species contain a volatile oil, which can cause contact dermatitis in sensitive
individuals. If taken internally, toxic metabolites are produced as the oil is
broken down in the liver and digestive tract. It is highly toxic to internal
parasites, and for centuries tansy tea has been prescribed by herbalists to
expel worms. Tansy is an effective insecticide and is highly toxic to
arthropods.

In the language of flowers, tansy leaves mean "the truth is bitter", while flowering stems indicate "hate, bitterness and a declaration of war".

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Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger

I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.

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